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Big green ogres aside, penguins are the hottest thing in animation right now. They were the highlight of “Madagascar,” and “Happy Feet” tap-tapped its way to an Oscar for best animated film. So you can’t blame the producers of “Surf’s Up” for wanting to get a piece of the proverbial penguin cash. But you can blame them for making a movie that’s so profoundly dull.
Lacking even a shred of creativity, “Surf’s Up” does dutifully appeal to its target audience of little kids, but everything else is markedly unspectacular. The story has the same coming-of-age structure as “Robots” and countless other animated tales: a young, naïve penguin in Shiverpool, Antarctica named Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) is so determined to follow in the greatness of his surfing idol, Big Z, that he enters his first pro competition on Pen Gu Island (think Hawaii).
Things don’t come easily, however. In an exhibition surf-off between he and Tank (Diedrich Bader), the nine-time defending champion of the event, Cody is embarrassed and afterward retreats into isolation. It’s not until the lifeguard on whom he has a crush, Lani (Zooey Deschanel), entrusts him in the care of the sage and elderly island recluse known as Geek (Jeff Bridges) that things turn around.
Possibly taking a cue from “March of the Penguins,” directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck give “Surf’s Up” a documentary shell that allows them to cut to other characters to get their take on what’s happening. The mockumentary approach can work with the right talent and circumstance, but the quick quips that are often at Cody’s expense are a form of verbal humor that’s too sophisticated for kids and is not funny enough for adults.
For example, there’s a scene in which Cody has an accident and doesn’t immediately resurface. The shameless, Don King-like promoter named Reggie (James Woods) begins a sorrowful lament on what a spry young talent Cody was, in effect offering a premature eulogy that’s more melancholic than humorous. When Cody does resurface Reggie does an about face and proclaims how glad he is that the kid pulled through, clearly indifferent to Cody’s well being and worse, never funny.
As much as the movie tries to infuse itself with energy during up-tempo surfing sequences and a “Happy Feet” rip-off slide through a mountain, it can never escape the doldrums of its bland, unoriginal story. As talented as members of the voice cast are, their roles have been done before, and done better. Listening to Woods rant on and on as Reggie, or Bridges try to be a mentor as Geek, you get the sense that the seasoned actors don’t quite believe in what they’re doing. And if the actors don’t believe in the material, why should we?
“Surf’s Up” will make a good amount of money given that most animated pictures geared toward children usually do. But the marvel of computer-generated animation is no longer a singularly compelling reason to see a movie; visually there’s nothing here that’s superior to “Finding Nemo” or “Happy Feet.”
To put it in surfing terms, the movie is a total wipeout.
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